Mona Eltahaway lectures on "How Young People and Women are Changing Religion and Politics in the Middle East" at Kerr Auditorium in the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History Monday night. Teeko Yang/ The Daily

Social media, like Facebook and Twitter, has given the opposition of regimes in the Middle East a louder voice, an international public speaker on Arab and Muslim issues told OU students Monday in the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History.

Mona Eltahawy, a syndicated columnist whose writings appear in the Washington Post and International Herald Tribune, presented her lecture, “Generation Facebook: How Young People and Women are Changing Religion and Politics in the Middle East,” to discuss how oppressed populations in the Middle East have begun to challenge traditional authorities.

“What the Internet has done in the Arab world over the past four or five years, is give a voice to the voiceless, and by and large they have been young people and women,” Eltahawy said.

Eltahawy discussed numerous events started by young Internet users, whom she calls “Generation Facebook,” that have influenced how the international community has addressed Middle Eastern nations.

Eltahawy told a story of an Egyptian blogger who has become a popular figure for those opposed to the current administration’s regime by posting videos of authorities torturing civilians on his blog. In one instance, she said the blogger posted a video of a man being sodomized with a stick by Egyptian police. The video went viral among human rights activists and led to a three-year prison sentence for two of the policemen.

“Three years is not a long time for what they did to this man, but just think about it,” Eltahawy said.

She said the video would not have reached the court if human rights activists had not picked it up from the Internet.

Eltahawy said the Internet has allowed bloggers to cover stories the state-owned media of these countries refuse to acknowledge.

She discussed an incident in which a woman blogger in Saudi Arabia protested the Summer 2008 Beijing Olympics. Saudi Arabia was one of two countries that did not send women athletes with its Olympic team. Eltahawy said the blogger made the case that Islam did not prohibit women from participating in sports through a YouTube video. She then sent out an appeal to the international community, leading to international outrage for the Saudi government’s actions.

“I believe the reason that she remains a free woman is because the Internet has become a form of protection,” Eltahawy said.

She said social networking sites also greatly aided the opposition during the June 2009 protests of Iran’s election between current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his major opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

Bekah Stone, international and areas studies senior and president of Sooners for Peace in Palestine, said students could learn from Eltahawy’s insight.

“I hope students would realize that Islam is a religion that is not inherently violent or sexist, and that there are Muslim women who are politically active,” she said.

The event was sponsored by the OU Center for Middle East Studies. It is part of a Presidential Dream Course called “Women and World Politics.”